Suchergebnisse

During recent decades, international humanitarian organizations and the governments of countries affected by natural catastrophes/disasters and climate change have highlighted the fact that more women lose their lives and suffer other effects of such events than men. This disparity in victim numbers is a phenomenon that is caused by – and inherently linked with – the unequal socioeconomic status of women. In alleviating disaster risks, women and men are limited to the roles and responsibilities they are afforded at home and in society. Gender roles constructed in an exclusive manner result in different personal and group identities and potentials, social responsibilities, behaviours and expectations. Thus, gender-based differentiation leads to gender inequality in all socio-economic processes, including different roles and opportunities: reductions in vulnerability and disaster risks, improved disaster management, anticipation of possible damages, and recovery from these. Due to all these differences, it is clear that women and men must participate equally in determining ways to reduce the risks of a disaster at the community level (national, regional and international) without discrimination and exclusion. The inclusion of gender experts (and aspects) in the development of gender-sensitive policies and program guidelines should be ensured. This creates a valid prerequisite for gender equality while reducing the risk of catastrophes/disasters and climate change and making community-based adaptation more effective. It is necessary to integrate gender sensitive aspects/criteria into the initiatives and processes of planning, designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating risk reduction programs and projects. In order to adapt to climate change and mitigate the consequences stemming from this, but also to reduce the risk of catastrophes/disasters, parameters must be established pertaining to the needs and interests of women. These needs are a prerequisite for supporting women's independent initiatives and for the financing of environmentally-friendly technologies for the sustainable use of natural resources.

The Istanbul Convention is an internationally legally binding document that represents a turning point in the fight against violence against women. The most important element of this Convention is the obligation of States to act with due diligence - with due regard to the prevention, detection, prosecution and sanctioning of violence against women. Harmonizing domestic legislation with the standards of the Convention, the obligation that Serbia took over by ratification, which also caused the adoption of the Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence. This is the first step, but obviously, not enough. There is an improvement of practical dealing with gender-based violence acts, as well as preventing and raising awareness on unacceptability of violence in contemporary conditions. The trend of its omnipresence is very visible. However, there still are many EU countries that have not yet ratified this convention, while in some it has led to serious polarization in society. The public in Serbia has mostly not being informed that this convention exists. There is a contradiction of the great idea of advocacy in fight against violence against women and vulgarization of dealing with terminological dilemmas and rigidity. It seems as some situations of normative erosion are repeated. Engrossed with formalism, we ratify and pass a series of laws that mostly remain as "dead letter on paper" without true commitment in real use.

The inclusion of the security sector in many EU member states has become one of the priorities of the national security of today. The reason for this introduction of inclusive security has been rationally observed as the security interest of countries of diversified compoaition of population, faced with modern security risks. This concept enables women and members of various national and religious minority groups to be included without discrimination, in the security sector of the countries of their citizenship. It is well known that women too oftenly were asked to assist to stabilize the country. But this happens usualy only after the conflict, although it would be much better for states to invest their entire population into peace, stability and prosperity in due time, meaning, before the outbreak of violence. Inclusion of women as decision makers in peacebuilding processes provides better results. It is more likely that peace agreements will be quicker achieved and longly sustained when women are significantly involved. Reducing the risk of disasters is as well as conflict resolution also another important domain for considering inclusive ways and methods for reducing the vulnerability and risks of society from disasters, in order to avoid or hinder adverse effects and dangers caused by natural phenomena.

This paper presents the way of functioning and implementation of the local ownership principle in situations where the support of local knowledge during the process of establishment of gender equality mechanisms is lacking. Gender equality mechanisms were part of the package of international organizations' influence over the process of democratic institutional reform in Serbia. The whole process is based on a numerous international documents that incite and justify the establishment of institutional mechanisms for gender equality at all levels of government: national, regional and local. The experience and knowledge of Western countries has contributed most to the process of formulating gender equality mechanisms and their subsequent functioning in Serbia. The lack of local knowledge production regarding the essence and role of the local ownership principle in the creation of gender equality institutions is permanent in Serbia. The concept of "learning sites", i.e. external actors becoming familiar with an internal situation has barely been applied in Serbia. The so-called "glocal" period of deep intermingling of both local and global elements did not happen. The authors argue that there was no essential "localization" of gender equality mechanisms based on domestic knowledge, and that both foreign and domestic actors are responsible for this situation: External actors because, apart from Western theory and experience, they are unaware of and/or neglect local knowledge, regardless of whether they consider it non-existent or inferior in comparison to the knowledge of Western countries. At the same time, domestic actors became quickly satisfied with the comfortable position of secondary lead stakeholders, with a role of transmitters and users of foreign concepts. They did not take advantage of the opportunities provided by the local ownership principle and did not pretend to take on either the role of creators or of relevant knowledge holders of policy-based public policies and practices.

The subject of this paper is the gender aspect of the disaster risk reduction concept. A natural phenomenon in itself is not a disaster, but it becomes when it strikes a vulnerable community, a group or individuals without proper defence who have no ability to resist or to repair its negative effects. lt causes material damage and human losses, possible interruption of the economic and social functioning of the community. The threat of disasters is a matter of overall human security and implies bringing into question the safety of life, housing and economy, food, water, energy, health, and environmental safety. The aim of the paper is to point out that disasters are not a 'natural' inevitability, since they are the result of natural risk factors and human vulnerability, in which gender-based inequalities are a constitutive component. Consequently, disaster risk reduction processes that include prevention, mitigation and preparedness for response in all phases should have a necessary gender perspective, with the aim of increasing disaster resilience. Such an approach is based on the knowledge of the risk management, capacity building and the use of information and communications technology, as well as the analysis of existing gender relations and the need to change unsafe discriminatory practices in the field. Namely, the opportunities available to women and men in fact are not the same even in 'normal' circumstances, not to mention the emergencies. There is a gender division of jobs, unequal access to material and non-material resources, lesser participation of women in decision- making at political and private levels, women's exposure to gender-based violence and various forms of discrimination. The conclusion is that building resistance to disasters, empowering women and community development necessarily represent elements of unique, but not separate, efforts.

The motivation for this paper comes from one successfully conducted empirical research about motivation of potential candidates to serve in the active reserve as a kind of military service which is recently introduced in the Serbian Army. The research team was faced with a set of problems related to the deadlines, resources and mandate issues. A solution was found in agile interdepartmental cooperation. Firstly, we started with identification of missing resources and mandates of our research team. Then, we investigated where we could find the missing issues. After that, we established lines for cooperation with other departments in the MoD. The clarity of interdepartmental communication and concretisation of demands and expectations were crucial for success. In the end we realized the full potential of interdepartmental cooperation and started to think about that phenomenon in the wider context of defence and security issues. We found some other examples of interdepartmental cooperation in earlier efforts of the defence sector reform, as well as some results in other armies. The paper presents strengths and opportunities of interdepartmental cooperation through temporary engaged working groups in the specific defence sector environment, as well as potential obstacles. In a wider aspect, interdepartmental cooperation in defence and security issues becomes more and more important because of new security challenges we are facing today.